Electric cable



June 4, 1935. CARLSON ET AL ZOO-3,99%

ELECTRIC CABLE Filed Aug. 27, 1932 Inventors Geor' ge Carlson, Homer" G. KnodeT-er,

Their- Attorneg.

Patented June 195 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,003,990 ELECTRIC CABLE George Carlson, Bridgeport, and Homer G.

Knoderer, Fairfield, Conn, assignors to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Application August 27, 1932, Serial No. 630,712

3 Claims. (01. 173-267) Our invention relates to electric cable and two conductor cable with the armor, conductors more particularly to electric cable of the armored and insulation broken away to illustrate the contype. struction, Fig. 2 is a similar view to Fig. 1 with Buildings are generally wired with an electric rolls shown for deforming the armor as the cable cable consisting of two or more electrical conmoves between them, Figure 3 is across sectional 5 ductors separately covered by insulation and view of the cable on line 33 of Figure 2, Figure grouped together and provided with an over-all 4 is a cross sectional view on line 4-4 of Fig. 2, insulating covering, surrounded by a metallic Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view similar to Figure armor. This metallic armor provides a mechan- 4 of a three conductor cable, and Fig. 6 is a cross 10 ical protection for the conductors and insulation. sectional view of the armor strip. 10 This metallic armor is generally electrically con- Referring to the drawing, Figs. 1 and 2, a two nected to the grounded side of the circuit to pre conductor cable I0) is shown having a convent it from being charged to the potential of ductor (l I) covered by the usual insulation (l2). the ungrounded side of the circuit. Due to de- Surrounding the conductor (I I) and insulation )5 fective material or improper handling of the ma- (I 2) is a second conductor (l3) consisting of a terial, it frequently happens that one of the unnumber of strands (l4) distributed uniformly grounded conductors will be in electrical conaround the circumference of insulation (l2) tact with the metallic armor. This produces a The strands (I4) are wound spirally around the short circuit from the ungrounded side, through insulation (l2) with a long pitch spiral. The

the conductor in contact with the metallic armor, sp al wrapp of strands (I4). is necessary to 20 then through the metallic armor to the groundp vent the breaking of the strands by the fl ed side of the circuit. The metallic armor is genof the conductors or cable. Obviously if the erally formed of a metal with a low conductivity strands (J4) were laid longitudinally over the and in addition if the electrical current follows insulation When the Cable Was fleXed h the metallic strip instead of travelling longitudi- Strands on the outer portion of the cable would 25 nally of the cable it will have a relatively long be severed. The spiral wrapping of the strands path. Due to the high resistance of the metallic (I 4) permits them to unwind sufiiciently to p armor the short circuit current will be relatively V t an u d teIlSiOh 0 e bending of the small and in general will not be suificient to cause Cable. Long spirals are used to reduce the length 80 the blowing of the fuse protecting the circuit. f the S ds necessary hnd to k e the reSiSt- Though this short circuit current load may be ance of conductor (l3) relatively 10W p r unit small from the point of view of the electrical conlen h of Cable, Conductor is u su atedsumer it may be relatively large over a long pe- Surrounding conductor I3 is a metal armor l5 riod of time. A more serious effect of this short st ng of a strip of metal of half-round shape,

circuit current may be the generation of heat in as shown in Fig. 6, Wound in a Spiral form With 35 the metallic armor at a point where it is in physthe fiat side in contact with conductor l3. ical contact with the wooden frame work of the Armor I5 s Wound in the pp ect on from building. The heat generated by the short cirthe direction in which the strands M are wound cult may start a fire which may not be discovered around the insulation l2. This facilitates the ununtil it is too late to prevent considerable damwinding of armor l5 and prevents the simulta- 40 age being done to the building. neous unwinding of strands l4. Armor [5 is The object of our invention is to provide an Wound with a short pitch spiral. The adjacent improved armored cable which will be free from spirals of armor l5 are spaced longitudinally to the hazards found in the present type of armored permit the flexing of the cable without engage- 15 cable in general use. A further object of our inment between the adjacent spirals on the under vention is to provide an improved armored cable side of the bend which would tend to force one of low cost of manufacture. A further object of of the spirals in toward the center of the cable our invention is to provide an improved armored thus severing some of the strands M. In order cable which will have a smaller outside diameter to permit easy stripping of the armor and to preior the same current carrying capacity. vent the edge of the metal strip cutting the What we consider to be novel and our invenstrands as it is wound under tension over them tion will be better understood by reference to the the armor l5 may not be very tightly wound over accompanying drawing when considered in conthe conductor l3. Loose fitting of armor l5 over H nection with the following description. the conductor l3 introduces the difiiculty of pre- In the drawing, Figure 1 is a plan view of a venting the armor from unwinding at the free end of the cable. To prevent this unwinding at the free end, armor I5 is deformed transversely. As best indicated in Figures 2 and 4 this transverse deformation is accomplished by flattening the armor and cable by rolls 24 and 25 on opposite sides of the transverse section. This deformation relieves the springtension tending to cause the armor to unwind when it is released at one end. Obviously; this deformation to prevent the unwinding of the armor H3 at the free ends of the cable can be accomplished in other ways than that illustrated, such as by the flattening of a transverse section on one side only. In Fig. 3 the cable is shown before armor I5 is deformed ,and in Fig. 4 it is shown, after the armor I5 is deformed.

In Figure 5 a three conductor cable is illustrated embodying our improved construction. Two conductors l6 and I! are provided with separate covers of insulating material l8 and I9 respectively. Conductors I6 and I! are provided with an over-all covering of insulating material 20. Surrounding thisover-all covering 20 is a third conductor 21 consisting of strands 22 evenly distributed over the circumference of over-all covering 20. Strands 22 are wound with a long pitch spiral over the covering 20 in a similar manner as described in connection with Figure 1. An armor 23 is provided surrounding and in direct contact with conductor 2|. The transverse section of armor 23 is deformed in a manner similar to that described in connection with Figure 2 by rolls 26 and 21. This deformation is indicated in Figure 5 in which it may be seen that the transverse section of armor 23 deviates from the normal oval shape of the over-all covering 20 and conductor 2| at opposite sides at which points it is somewhat flattened.

The provision of the armor l5 and 23 in direct electrical contact with the uninsulated conductors l3 and 2| eliminates the necessity of grounding the armor when the cable is used in a grounded circuit'since the bare conductors are adapted to be connected to the grounded side of the circuit and thus provide a continuous ground for the armor. Thus any short-circuit between an ungrounded conductor and the armor insures a path of low resistance-for a short-circuit current which will cause the immediate blowing of the protective fuse on the occurrence of the shortcircuit. This, in consequence, considerably reduces the fire hazard upon the occurrence of short-circuit. In addition the elimination of the necessity of an insulating covering for 'one of the conductors of the cable reduces the amount of material necessary in the manufacture of that cable, thus reducing its manufacturing cost.

Also the elimination of the insulating covering for one of the conductors reduces the over-all diameter of the cable. a .1

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is:

1. In combination in a cable, a plurality of conductors, separate coverings of insulating material for each conductor, an overall covering of insulating material for said conductors, a stranded conductor wound spirally with a long pitch spiral about said conductors and overall covering of insulating material, and a metal armor wound in the opposite direction from said stranded conductor with a short pitch spiral with spacedconvolutions directly in contact with said stranded conductor.

2. In combination in a cable, a plurality of conductors, separate coverings of insulating material for each conductor, an overall covering of insulating material for said conductors, a stranded conductor wound spirally with along pitch spiral J about said conductors and overall covering of in" sulating material, and a metal armor wound with a short pitch spiral with spaced convolutions di-= rectly in contact with said stranded conductor,

said metal armor being deformed after its applif wound with a short pitch spiral with spaced convolutions.

GEORGE CARI-SON. HOMER G. KNODERER. 

